Important information about the train strikes in January and February: What you should know about potential disruptions.

The conflict between Aslef, the union representing train drivers, and 14 train companies in England has been ongoing for three years.

The labor union has declared their intention to go on strike in 2024 due to the ongoing dispute over wages and working conditions.

Aslef train operators will engage in a progressive work stoppage, occurring regionally over the span of a week from Tuesday, January 30th to Monday, February 5th. It is expected that numerous trains will be cancelled daily.

The impact will be worsened by a restriction of nine days on working overtime, starting from January 29th and ending on February 6th.

However, the planned five-day strike by Aslef for LNER from 5 to 9 February has been cancelled. A representative for the train company stated, “We are pleased to hear that there will no longer be a risk of prolonged interruption to our operations.”

We urge Aslef to collaborate with us in finding a resolution to this ongoing conflict that is detrimental to the railway industry.

Here are the essential inquiries and responses.

Aslef is currently in conflict with the train companies that have been contracted by the government to offer railway services. These companies include:

Intercity operators:

London commuter operators:

Operators with a focus on the Midlands and the northern regions of England.

ScotRail, Transport for Wales, Transport for London (specifically the Elizabeth Line), Merseyrail, and independent operators such as Grand Central, Hull Trains, and Lumo are not participating in the strike. However, it is expected that their services will be heavily congested on routes where they overlap with companies affected by the strike.

On Monday, January 29th, the overtime ban will commence.

On Tuesday, January 30th, South Western Railway, Southeastern, and GTR (which includes Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, and Thameslink) will all be operating.

On Wednesday, January 31st, there will be services running on Northern and TransPennine Express routes.

On Thursday, February 1st, there will be no strike; however, the overtime ban will remain in effect.

On Friday, February 2nd, there will be strikes on Greater Anglia, C2C, and LNER (which will also have another strike the following week).

On Saturday, February 3rd, West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast, and East Midlands Railway will be operating.

There will be no strike on Sunday, February 4th, but the overtime ban will still be in effect.

Starting on Monday, February 5th, there will be strikes for Great Western, CrossCountry, and Chiltern. The LNER strike will also take place from Monday to Saturday, February 9th.

On Tuesday, February 6th, there will not be a strike, but the ban on overtime will continue for one more day.

Using the previous rolling strikes as a reference, these are the expected outcomes – assuming no intervention is made by Mark Harper, the transport secretary, to implement a minimum level of service.

These predictions are made by The Independent based on their previous observations of strikes and should be verified with each specific rail company.

There will be no trains on the Great Northern line on January 30th.

On January 30th, there will be no train services for Thameslink.

There are no trains running on January 30 in the Southeastern region.

On January 30th, Southern Railway will only run a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick airport. This service will operate nonstop from 6am to 11:30pm.

On January 30th, the Gatwick Express will not be running. However, the Southern airport shuttle will still provide transportation.

On January 30th, South Western Railway will offer a main service of four trains per hour from London Waterloo to Woking. One train per hour will continue on to Guildford and Basingstoke. There will also be a shuttle from Basingstoke to Salisbury. Trains will also run between Waterloo and Feltham via Richmond and Twickenham. However, there will be no trains running on the Isle of Wight.

There will be no trains on January 31st for the northern region.

No train services will be available on January 31st for TransPennine Express.

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On February 2nd, there are no trains available.

On 2 February, there will be a restricted service connecting London Liverpool Street to Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Southend Victoria, Cambridge, and Stansted airport on Greater Anglia.

On February 2nd, LNER will have consistent train service on main routes connecting London King’s Cross to Leeds, York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh.

On February 3rd, there will be no train services on Avanti West Coast. The operator has highlighted that services on the days before and after the strike will also be impacted.

On February 3rd, East Midlands Railway announced that there will be no trains running. They have previously advised against traveling and have stated that no Rail Replacement Bus services will be available.

There will be no train service on West Midlands Railway on February 3.

Chiltern Railways (February 5): Train service not available.

There will be no train service on February 5 for CrossCountry.

The Great Western Railway announced that on February 5th, there will be a primary service operating between London Paddington and Oxford, Bath, and Bristol, with a connection from Bristol to Cardiff. There will be a limited service running on branch lines in Devon and Cornwall. The Night Riviera sleeper service from London to Penzance will be suspended for several nights. The Heathrow Express will also be impacted, with a reduced service available only from 7am to 7pm.

Furthermore, not only will there be disruptions on the days of the strike, but trains on neighboring days may also experience delays. As a result, services on these days are expected to be significantly overcrowded as passengers adjust their travel plans to avoid the strikes.

The new law authorizes the transportation secretary to mandate a minimum level of service (MLS) on days of strike, which must be at least 40% of the regular service.

To the best of The Independent’s knowledge, there is no train company attempting to enforce the new legislation on the union for train drivers.

The Transport Select Committee has previously cautioned about possible unintended repercussions of the law. Iain Stewart, the Conservative chair, stated: “There is a possibility that MSLs could negatively impact the relationship between workers and employers, potentially leading to a decrease in service reliability.”

Monday, January 29th will be the most disruptive in terms of the number of passengers affected. The targeted demographic is commuters in southeast England, most of whom utilize the train operators that will be impacted.

On Friday, February 2 and Saturday, February 3, intercity travelers will experience the most significant impact. The main operators on the East Coast and West Coast main lines, as well as the Midland mainline, will be affected.

There is a high chance that Sunday, February 4th will experience significant disruptions due to the prohibition of work on rest days and scheduled maintenance on the West Coast main line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, as well as on the East Coast main line between London King’s Cross and Stevenage.

The regulations for minimum service levels do not pertain to labor unions’ restrictions on working on days off that are not specified in the contract.

Aslef claims that the overtime ban will result in numerous cancellations, as train operators do not have sufficient drivers to fulfill their promises to passengers and businesses without requiring them to work on their off days.

The passengers were advised during the recent Aslef overtime ban from 1 to 9 December 2023 that trains may experience unexpected changes and cancellations.

Multiple train companies declared proactive cancellations in anticipation of the previous ban on overtime, as outlined:

On weekends, there will be a significant decrease in train services, and there will also be reduced trains on weekdays.

Chiltern: There will be a significant decrease in service on most routes, and some branch lines will have no train service. “Service on all routes will end earlier than usual.”

The Gatwick Express service will not be running during the overtime ban. However, Southern trains will still operate between London Victoria and Gatwick airport during the industrial action.

The majority of days will see the closure of branch lines between Bletchley and Bedford, Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey, and Leamington Spa and Nuneaton for London Northwestern Railway/West Midlands Railway.

The revised schedule will have fewer services and there may be delays in start and end times.

Thameslink cautioned that there will be a modified schedule with reduced frequency.

Several trains were cancelled on the first day, such as the South Western Railway from London Waterloo to Southampton, the Great Western Railway from London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare via Bristol and Carmarthen via Cardiff and Swansea, and the TransPennine Express links from Manchester and Newcastle to Edinburgh. There were also a few Manchester-Leeds-Hull services that were affected.

Some train companies still do not include Sunday as part of the regular work week. Therefore, the ban on working on rest days will cause significant disruptions on February 4.

Certain train stations may prohibit passengers from boarding or disembarking in order to prevent overcrowding.

Once more, these are forecasts derived from previous occurrences.

The Elizabeth Line and Tube provided continuous access to London Heathrow.

On Tuesday, December 5th, there was a limited hourly service from the capital to London Stansted, while all other days during the overtime ban experienced changes in service.

On all days, including the Thameslink strike day on 30 January, Luton airport will still be reachable by train from London. The East Midlands Railway connection will be in operation. However, on 3 February when there are no expected East Midlands Railway services, Thameslink will be running.

On Saturday, February 3rd, it is expected that Birmingham airport will not be reachable by train, except for Transport for Wales from Birmingham New Street.

On Wednesday 31 January, it is expected that Manchester airport will only be accessible by rail through a hourly connection on Transport for Wales going to and from central Manchester, Chester, and North Wales.

On strike days, it may be challenging to make connecting journeys between London St Pancras International and Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. However, trains will still operate normally on this route. Tuesday, January 30th, will be particularly difficult due to strikes by Thameslink and Southeastern, and on Saturday, February 3rd, it is unlikely that there will be any East Midlands Railway services running.

In the most recent edition of the Aslef Journal, members were informed by general secretary Mick Whelan that train drivers are feeling disillusioned and annoyed with their employers for not negotiating in good faith. The Rail Delivery Group presented a proposal that they knew would be rejected.

They deserve to be treated with respect and given the recognition and rewards they have earned.”

The members of Aslef, who are considered essential workers for keeping our country functioning during the pandemic, are requesting a reasonable and respectable agreement. They deserve to be treated with dignity and acknowledged for the hard work and sacrifices they have made.

“We have not met with Mark Harper, the transport secretary, since December 2022. Our last meeting with Huw Merriman, the rail minister, was in January. Additionally, we have not received any communication from the employers since April.”

We have consistently stated our willingness to negotiate, but it is important for the government and TOCs to recognize that this disagreement cannot be resolved by pressuring our members to accept unfavorable terms and conditions of employment.

A representative from Rail Delivery Group stated that strikes have negative effects on both individuals and their means of support. This is especially hard to justify during a period when taxpayers are already contributing an additional £54m per week to maintain services after Covid.

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“Although the railway is facing significant financial difficulties, drivers have been presented with a proposal that would increase their base salaries to almost £65,000 for a four-day work week without overtime. This amount is significantly higher than the national average and what many of our passengers, who are not able to work remotely, earn.”

“Rather than engaging in further harmful industrial action, we urge the Aslef leadership to collaborate with us in order to find a resolution for this dispute. We aim for a fair agreement that not only compensates our employees, but also implements necessary changes to improve the reliability of our services.”

A representative from the Department for Transport expressed disappointment in Aslef’s continued targeting of train commuters going to work, school, or medical appointments.

“Aslf is now the only rail union that is continuing to strike while refusing to put a fair and reasonable offer to its members. The offer that remains on the table and would bring the average train driver’s salary up to £65,000.

The leaders of Aslef should allow their members to make their own decisions about their future, rather than making the decisions for them.

According to Stephen Morgan MP, the shadow rail minister, the Labour party plans to return the railways to public ownership as contracts end, and prioritize passenger interests in service provision.

Source: independent.co.uk